The Effect Of The Balanced Score Card Model On Employees Perfomance Within The Banking Sector: A Case Of Kenya Commercial Bank

ABSTRACT

The balanced scorecard model is a strategic planning and management tool that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization‟s performance against strategic goals. The balanced score card has been used by various organizations in Kenya as a performance appraisal tool. Most commercial banks have adopted the use of Balanced score card to appraise the performance of their employees. There are very few studies that have been done on the area of Balanced Score Card, and those few have mainly focused on organization‟s/ company‟s performance. Very few researchers have focused their studies on the individual employee performance. This study was therefore aimed at determining the effect of the Balanced Score Card on employee performance in Kenya Commercial Bank. The study was carried out to explore the four pillars on which the balanced Score Card is built; i.e. The Financial Pillar, The Customer Service Pillar, Learning and Growth and the Internal Business processes Pillar, and further establish whether the perspectives have any impact on employee performance in Kenya Commercial Bank. The study was carried out on 20 branches in Central and Nairobi Regions of the bank. It targeted 54 respondents who were sampled randomly though stratified random sampling. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The researcher used questionnaires as a tool for collecting data. The tool was administered by way of „drop and pick‟ method. Some questionnaires were administered by use of emails. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and also inferential statistics. The various interdependent variables were analyzed from the data that was obtained in this study by organizing them into similar themes and tallying the number of similar responses. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) aided in the analysis. SPSS version 12.0 performed exploratory data analysis and descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics was also used in making predictions or inferences about a population from observations and analyses of samples. Linear regression analysis was used. The tool was pre-tested in order to determine its validity and reliability. Presentation of data was through tables, pie charts, line graphs and bar graphs. Findings of the study revealed that employee performance is greatly influenced by the four aspects of the balanced Score Card; the financial perspective affects employee performance to a great extent, continuous and timely employee training enables them perform well, flexible and friendly internal business processes lead to improved employee performance and improved customer service highly motivates the employees. However, the researcher concludes that for improved employee performance, it is important to continuously train employees in order to enable them perform effectively and hence increase their output and to regularly update employees on the financial aspects of the bank since the financial factor has a great influence on employee performance. However, the researcher recommends that there is need to ensure effective follow through and review of the deliverables to ensure that all KCB employees are comfortable that the tool measures their performance effectively.